Thursday, September 10, 2009

Converting landfills to parks in Brooklyn

In a $200 million project, the city’s Department of Environmental Protection covered the Fountain Avenue Landfill and the neighboring Pennsylvania Avenue Landfill with a layer of plastic, then put down clean soil and planted 33,000 trees and shrubs at the two sites. The result is 400 acres of nature preserve, restoring native habitats that disappeared from New York City long ago.

The site is not yet open to the public. Indeed, it is still listed by the state as a toxic waste site. But the air is clear and fresh.

A spokeswoman for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation said the Fountain Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue Landfills, currently listed as a “significant threat to the public health or environment,” could be reclassified by next spring as safe for public access, requiring only continued monitoring of their conditions.

So Bloomberg is taking a contaminated site and converting it into a passive use park and natural area, but then he is taking an ready-made natural area at the Ridgewood Reservoir and turning it into ballfields. Logic: lacking in the mind of the mayor.

3 comments:

Taxpayer
said...

Regarding the backward idiocy of converting a toxic site to a nature preserve, while simultaneously destroying a nature preserve to convert it to athletic fields (while leaving athletic fields across the road withering in deliberate neglect): FOLLOW THE MONEY.

Newtown Creek, Greenpoint/Williamsburg and the LIC waterfront contain perhaps the most toxic soils in NYC.

If anyone develops serious ailments after moving onto those sites, I hope they sue Bloomberg, the city agencies, the community board members, the local polticans, the local newspapers, and the developers for promoting a real estate land grab over the needs of public health.

Spotted a piece of Queens Crap in your community?

Please note

Italicized passages and many of the photos come from other websites. The links to these websites are provided within the posts.

Why your neighborhood is full of Queens Crap

"The difference between dishonest and honest graft: for dishonest graft one worked solely for one's own interests, while for honest graft one pursued the interests of one's party, one's state, and one's personal interests all together." - George Washington Plunkitt

Sites that kick ass:

The above organizations are recognized by Queens Crap as being beneficial to the city as a whole, by fighting to preserve the history and character of our neighborhoods. They are not connected to this website and the opinions presented here do not necessarily represent the positions of these organizations.

The comments left by posters to this site do not necessarily represent the views of the blogger or webmaster.